NewsGator Go! Trying to Behave Nicely
September 28th, 2006
I previously posted about the news from Jason Calacanis about Weblogs Inc. making their sites render nicely on mobile devices and how this is very cool but presents a challenge for mobile clients… you can read more here and at the::unwired.
Here is what I plan to do about this in the next version of NewsGator Go! Currently, you can turn on mobile formatting for all your feeds. In this case, I am using Skweezer to transcode all web content external to my app (links to the original article, links to other articles, etc).
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So, if I subscribe to blogs that behave nicely and render properly for mobile, the transcoding is going to jack things up. Sites like the::unwired and Engadget get penalized for doing the right thing.  So, what I will be able to do is turn on/off transcoding at a more granular level on a feed by feed basis. That is pretty cool.
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So, with these check boxes now in the UI it creates some extra clutter and uses valuable real estate. No worries though… just click on the “Mobile Formatting†menu option and the check boxes go bye bye. I know this isn’t the perfect solution. The user still has to go in and enable/disable formatting at a feed level but it at least provides a valuable option. Hope this helps!
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Entry Filed under: Mobile
September 28th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
The proposed changes look like a great way to handle feed formatting. Is there any way to know programattically whether you’re being directed to a mobile version of a site? If so, it’d be cool if NewsGator Go! attempted to figure that out for me.
On the subject of enhancements, I was wondering if you have anything in mind regarding one-handed operation for pure Pocket PC devices (the ones without a keyboard). On my Dell Axim X50v, I find that I can drill down into feeds and read the feeds in a given folder with one hand, but I need to take out the stylus to click OK to get back to the feed list. This really slows down my reading. It would be great to have the ability to get back to the feed list, or simply plow ahead to the next feed with unread items.
Also, I’m not certain why, but NewsGator Go! seems to render text differently than my other Pocket PC applications. My device is a VGA (640×480) device, and in the regular mode the text in Go! looks aliased and muddy. If I force it into true VGA mode, the text looks better, but is extremely small and does not respect the operating system font size settings. Is there a reason for this?
You guys have nailed the synchronization, and for that I am in love with Go!. If the two nits I mentioned above were handled in the next version, I’d be singing your praises from the treetops!
September 28th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Hey Jason, I currently am using third party services to do the transcoding (Skweezer and Google) so I have no control over whether or not there is a mobile version of the site… wish I could figure it our programmatically. That would be ideal.
I am definitely always striving to make the workflow and user experience better. Having to pull out the stylus on a PPC w/o a keyboard is definitely no acceptable. I will do my best to make this right (I’ll see how other apps handle this) and as always would love to get user input on this.
As far as the fonts looking bad goes… I will look into this as well and promise to make that better in V 1.1 as well!
September 28th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
Wow, what more could a user ask for? Thanks for your rapid response!
You have my email address via this comment form. If you’re interested in having someone test beta or even experimental builds, please let me know. I’m a bit of a nut for this type of stuff, and spent two years as a software tester until I couldn’t take it any longer…
Just to make sure it’s clear, I’m really enjoying what you’ve got going here. My comments should be taken as purely constructive!
September 29th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Thanks for the beta test offering… I will definitely be hitting you up when the next beta is ready to roll. I look forward to your feedback and ideas.
October 5th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
I’ve done a little thinking about it, and I would suggest not to be shy about using the other hardware buttons on the Pocket PC. While I think it’s admirable that you’re trying to do all navigation with the D-pad and action button, I think maybe for something as involved as a reader, it might be worthwhile to move some of the functions, like marking a post unread or clipping posts to buttons that are not on the D-pad, and using the D-pad solely for navigation. Just a thought.